Drop the "e" in "core" gamer, and you've apparently got someone very near the (Latin) heart of gaming ("cor" = "heart"). How's that for holding a passionate title?

1) The problem is that the "misnomer" of "hardcore" and "casual" has already stuck, and unstickying stuck terms is difficult waters to navigate. (Linguistic change is predictable at times, and just plain ridiculous at others.) Not to mention that, if we're talking about misnomers, "bibliophilia" is sometimes more…

Call me a hostile reactionary, but I maintain the labels of "hardcore" and "casual" as useful descriptions. In fact, I have a label on Steam for "casual" PC games when I only want to play "casual" games, much like I have an "indie" label for when I want to listen to "indie" music or a "prosetry"-type label when I…

I can't agree enough. I don't like bitching about people's writing style too much, because I'm far from a saint - but what the hell, man? There's a fine line between rambling charmingly through a topic as if talking to good friends and being practically incapable of editing the written word. The former involves tight…

Thank you. It's shocked me how often people try to claim that discontented Americans shouldn't break the law if they see no other options available, despite the fact that this country has repeatedly bettered itself through measures of civil disobedience. I mean, we even read Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" in high…

I was thinking about this while playing. It'd be nice to have something co-opty along the lines of Demon's Souls or Fable II in an TES game. Just drop-in and help, and leave when you want. The explanation isn't all that whacky for Elder Scrolls, especially considering that the Daedric Princes have surely done crazier…

1) I've see this a couple times. You start off with saying "OWS has nothing to do with jobs," following by saying that the movement is "so cloudy no one knows what it's about," which, in turn, is followed by saying what it's about. Is it too cloudy to know/figure out or is it about economic regulation, public mischief…

This seems pertinent. I'm lucky enough to have a job, but that's not to say anyone I know is having an easy time finding one right now. Not to say that OWS is perfect, but, like some of the more moderate statements of the earlier Tea Party, there really is an issue with people finding reasonable jobs in America that…

I might be wrong, but I'd assume it's a (kinda funny, actually) homage to "The Death of Marat."

I know what Mario is... but what is love?

I like the gist of this article - I think we should be paying more attention to the cost of war on our humanity. However, there are some gaping holes in the thesis. To say that there's anything culturally notable about a world/regional power obsessing over war in their cultural texts is kinda flying in the face of the…

Part of the issue here is the distinct problem of finding an "in" in the industry. I mean, I went to school to be a poet. (Dumb decision, but - whatever.) Throughout my workshopping classes, my professors were always very quick to remind us impressionable students that the way you get recognition as a poet is to find…

Hell, I'd like to see someone try Legion of the Damned for once. It'd be like a violent version of Quantum Leap, but you're a couple feet taller and a few hundred pounds heavier than Scott Bakula. (Well - I'd really like to see a game with Harlequins in it for once, but that's a pointless hope...)

I was going to say that, actually. Halo's a great game just to learn how to get used to multiplayer FPSs, but you have to do some serious mental gymnastics to block out some of the haters if you get in the wrong lobby. I guess the real remedy is to play with friends, but that's always easier said than done.

Mr. Bissel has a very odd requirement that the "point" of games needs to be one thing or another for us to heap celebrity on certain people. He's free to argue whether we should make VAs celebrities (to which I disagree strongly with him: we should), but arguing whether gamers can/will lift these people into celebrity…

Glass-half-full people see it as BF3 players creating social networking tools out of their own collective conscious, therefore willing it into existence. Or maybe that's glass-half-aphasic. Either way.

Sure, it's smart. Sure, it's better at Civ 5 than me. Sure, it can actually stomach the casual gaming influence on the game. Sure, it doesn't turn everything into a pointless soapbox against Sid Meier's one perceived blemish on an otherwise wonderful record. But...

I get it. I get it. I get it. Video games are expensive to rent out because of the basic costs involved in getting sufficient volume of games. However, Netflix is just not even an option at this point for me.

I get the idea of keeping up with the Joneses, but this is a pretty sad development. I grew up on strategy games and shooters both. There really needs to be a clearer balance of the genres on consoles. I get that the controls are pretty shoddy for most strategy-styled games on consoles, but there's no excuse for…